# Butterfly and Ant

Эмиль Шарафутдинов

Перевод басни Крылова "Стрекоза и Муравей"

Butterfly and Ant


Giddy Butterfly* had sung

Through all summer in the sun;

Before she had time to think

Winter pops up in a wink.

Blooming fields are now dead;

No more those days ahead

When she had in every tree

Ready meal and lodging free.

All is gone: with winter snow

Need and hunger come along;

Butterfly sings not a song;

Who would think of singing on

On a stomach cold and hollow!

Feeling heavily depressed

She comes down to Ant's nest:

'Leave me not, my dear heart,

Only let my strength restart

And until next year's spring,

You, look after my well-being!'

'Sister, you are quite a bummer,'

Ant says. 'Did you work in summer?'

'How could I've worked, my friend?

In soft grass we every day

Spent in singing songs and play

That my head giddy went'.

'So to work...'

'I had no chance -

The whole summer I was singing'.

'You were singing? that's beginning:

Now you had better dance!'


* В переводе на английский невозможно использование оригинального персонажа стрекозы, потому что по-английски стрекоза - это вовсе не "стрекочущая коза", а "муха-дракон" dragon-fly, соответственно и ассоциации в сознании англоговорящего человека, читающего басню про муху-дракона и муравья, окажутся совершенно не теми, которые хотел бы вызвать Крылов.